Old Scars
by RyuuMahou
Summary: With every battle comes scars. The kids at school get a suprise from Danny, can you guess? Is his secret safe? Doubt it... [Disclaimer: I don't own DP]


**This story pretty much developed out of one line, and that being said by Dash Baxter: What'd you do to get like that? Or something of the like and it kinda just developed into this little ((cough) understatement (cough)) fic.**

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**Old Scars**

It started off like any other normal day for 17 year old Daniel Fenton, Danny to his friends and family. But 'normal' is for Danny is not 'normal' for us. He had changed over the years, growing taller and more muscular from his ghost fighting, and wore now a red, short sleeved shirt with a white, long sleeved shirt underneath. **(A/N: It's one of those shirts that has the long sleeves sewn into the short sleeves, so technically it's only one shirt.) **He still wore his signature blue jeans and red sneakers.

He walked towards Casper High, where he was currently a senior, but stopped suddenly when his breath suddenly appeared in front of him. He gasped, ducking into a nearby alleyway and going ghost.

Leaving his backpack abandoned in the alley, he soared above the buildings, scanning the skyline when suddenly—

"I AM THE BOX GHOST MASTER OF EVERYTHING CUBIC AND SQUARE! FEAR THE AWESOME MIGHT OF MY CARDBOARD CUBES!"

Danny sighed and spotted said ghost further down the street. Flying over to the Box Ghost, Danny stopped in front of him, crossing his arms over his chest. "You know, we go through the same thing every time, why do you keep coming back?" he asked, his voice clearly showing his irritation.

"Do not try and stop me Danny Phantom! For this time, I shall rule the world of cardboard boxes! Fear the wrath of—" he paused and looked at the boxes that he had hovered over to him. "Two percent Choc. Milk!"

"Oh God," Danny groaned, rolling his head around. The boxes flew at him. He turned intangible and they went right through him, bouncing harmlessly behind him on the ground. He shot off two ecto-blasts out of his index fingers which hit the two boxes that the Box Ghost had just levitated behind him. Danny sent off another shot which hit the Box Ghost in the chest.

"Beware!" the ghost yelled. Danny sighed again and unclipped the Fenton Thermos from his belt and sucked the harmless ghost into the swirling blue vortex.

"You have not seen the last of me Danny Phantom!" the Box Ghost yelled as he was sucked up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Danny muttered as he flew back into the alley he had left his backpack in. He transformed back into his human self and grabbed his backpack, leaving the alley and continuing on his way to school.

He walked into the school and to his locker, greeting his two best friends as he did so, "Hey Sam, hey Tuck." Samantha Manson, Sam to her friends, and Tucker Foley were waiting by his locker, like they were every morning.

They, too, had changed throughout the years. Sam was still Goth in her ways, wearing black hip huggers, and a dark blood red, short sleeved shirt that showed off her naval. She still wore her favorite combat boots, just incase someone needed their asses kicked. She had grown too, but was now shorter than Danny and Tucker by a head. Her curves had filled out too, making her the object of many boys' affections, not that she returned any.

Tucker was still a geek, carrying too many techno-geek accessories for his own good. He wore a green, short sleeved shirt with tan cargo pants and black sneakers. He had gotten rid of his glasses in sophomore year, and had gotten contacts. The red beret still graced his head though. He had shot up during their junior year and was just short of six feet.

"You look like death; did you run in with something this morning?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ha, ha," he laughed mockingly. "It was just the Box Ghost. He's really starting to get on my nerves."

"He gets on everyone's nerves, man," Tucker piped up. "He'll never go away."

"Yeah, it's just—" Danny started but was cut off by a yell down the hall.

"FENTON!" yelled the school's number one bully, Dash Baxter.

Danny sighed for the third time that morning and shut his locker, walking in the opposite direction that the yell had come from. But he wasn't lucky enough to avoid Dash and ended up pushed up against the lockers.

"When I call you, dweeb, you don't ignore me!" Dash said angrily to Danny. Danny pushed away from Dash, not wanting to deal with him right then, and started to walk again down the hall. "Don't walk away from me!" Dash yelled, grabbing the back of Danny's shirt. Little did he know that he had grabbed too hard.

There was a loud rip that rang through the hall, stopping all conversation and turning everyone's attention towards the two. Dash held the back of Danny's shirt in his hand, though not paying attention to it.

Danny groaned and pulled the front of his shirt off, no sense in still keeping it on. Everyone in the hall gasped when they caught sight of him. They were shocked. They didn't know whether to be mortified or amazed at the sight. Sure Danny was ripped with a nice six pack, but he was covered in old pink scars. Some big, some small, but no matter, they were all over.

"God, Fenton, what'd you do to get like that?" Dash asked, eyes wide at all of the scars, most of which looked like they had been painful lacerations.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sam said angrily, stepping up to grab Danny by the arm. She pulled him away, the people that had gathered, parting like the Red Sea and staring openly. Sam dragged him down to the boy's locker room. "Go get your gym shirt," she told him.

He gave a grateful **(A/N: That's spelt right, just so you know. Yeah, it confused me too. I was like why is it that grate instead of the other great? It'd make more sense…but then this is the English language)** smile and shuffled into the room. He walked over to his gym locker and opened it up, grabbing his gym shirt out of there and slipping it on.

He walked out of the locker room and into the hall, where Tucker and Sam were waiting for him. "Hey, man, it's not that bad," Tuck immediately said after he came out. "Maybe now you won't get picked on."

"Yeah, but this is why I started to wear long sleeved shirts," Danny said thoughtfully, looking down at his arms. They were riddled with scars, big and small, just like the rest of him. "I didn't want them to start thinking that this was my parents' doing."

"Let's just go to class," Sam interjected. "If they ask anything about your parents, we can always vouch for them, and for you."

Danny gave her a heartfelt smile. "Thanks Sam." They started down the hall towards their first class, English with Mr. Lancer. All the while, Danny was getting stared at and whispered about. The rumors had only just begun.

They arrived at their English class and sat in their normal seats until Mr. Lancer came in. "Mr. Fenton, would you please come with me, there is something that I'd like to discuss with you," he said. All eyes in the class were on him.

Danny sighed deeply and got up, Sam and Tucker getting up with him. "I said Mr. Fenton only Miss Manson and Mr. Foley, and I mean only him," Mr. Lancer said pointedly.

"You're going to make false accusations, don't think we don't know, and don't think we won't try and get those ridiculous lies out of your head!" Sam said angrily, not sitting back down.

"We're only going to ask him a few questions, which I'm sure that he can answer without your help. I will be back in a little while class." And with that, he left the room. Danny turned towards Sam, who started after him, and shook his head. She glared at him but sat back down. Tucker gave him a pat on the back and sat back down too.

Danny walked out of the class, all eyes on him, and met Mr. Lancer out in the hall. He followed him down to the nurse's office and followed in afterwards. The nurse was there, along with the principle, Principle Ishiyama.

"Now Danny," the nurse started, "I'd like you to take off your shirt." Danny sighed, knowing that it wouldn't be any better if he refused, so he grabbed the bottom of his white, short sleeved gym shirt and pulled it off over his head. "Oh my God," the nurse gasped.

Danny looked at the stunned faces of his nurse, teacher, and principle. "Danny," Mr. Lancer breathed, "how did you become like this?" He gestured towards his torso that was mottled with scars.

"I can't tell you," Danny said, gripping his shirt tightly by his side.

"Now Danny, I need to know if someone's been hurting you so that we can do something about it. Are there problems at home?" the Mrs. Ishiyama asked tentatively.

Danny narrowed his eyes in anger, gripping his shirt tighter so that his knuckled turned white. "You think my parents did this?" he asked furiously. He spoke again before they could say anything, "They may be slightly crazy, and not all there all the time, but they're good parents! They'd never hurt me."

"We know that Danny, we just needed to ask. But we'd really like to know how you got like this," the nurse said, pity in her eyes.

"I don't need your pity," Danny said angrily, seeing it in the woman's eyes. "And I still can't tell you."

"Do you have scars all over?" Mr. Lancer asked, slightly fearing the answer.

"Yes," Danny answered. He pulled up his pant leg to reveal more healed scars on his calf. "Now if that's all that you need to know, I'd like to get back to class." He dropped his pant leg and put his shirt back on. He walked out of the nurse's office and down the hall, Mr. Lancer hot on his trail.

"You know, Danny we're going to have to call your parents about this. I'm sure they don't know about this," he said, walking up beside the still infuriated young man.

"And I won't have a way to explain it, Mr. Lancer, so I suggest you drop the subject right now," Danny said, not looking up at the teacher. They arrived back at the class and walked in, Danny returning to his seat, not missing the whispers about him as they had entered.

"All right class," Mr. Lancer said, walking up to the whiteboard. "Open your books up to page…" Danny tuned the rest of the class out as he stared blankly at his book.

A piece of folded paper flopped into his vision, coming from his right where Sam sat. He carefully unfolded the note and read it:

_What happened?_

It read in her curly scrawl. He wrote back:

**Tell you at lunch.**

In his sloppy, boyish writing. He folded the note back up silently and passed it back to her.

Danny's day pretty much went downhill from there. He got stares wherever he went. He talked about what happened with Lancer, but Sam and Tuck had no good advice for such a situation, and then in his last class, 15 minutes before the day was over, his ghost sense went off.

_Oh shit, _Danny thought, groaning. He raised his hand and was excused to the bathroom. He ran into the boy's bathroom down the hall, checking to make sure that it was empty before going ghost. He flew through the wall of the school and out into the open air. He looked around, trying to find the ghost when he was slammed from behind with a net, and sent to the ground.

He heard laughter behind him and turned his head around to see through the glowing green net. Skulker floated above him, grinning maliciously down at him. "Well, ghost child, are you ready to adorn my floor with your pelt?" he asked, the grin never leaving his face.

"No amount of therapy will ever make this moment okay," he murmured to himself. To Skulker, he said, "No matter how many times I hear that, I'm never going to get used to the fact that you want my skin on your floor."

"I will have you whelp!" Skulker yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Danny muttered, phasing into the ground and out of the net. He came up out of the ground, fist raised, and punched Skulker under his jaw, sending him flying up higher. They exchanged blows, Danny denting Skulker's ecto-suit, and Skulker cutting Danny across his shoulder, thigh and side, all the cuts bleeding green ecto-blood.

Danny was faintly aware of the school bell ringing, and kids rushing out of the school, only to stop suddenly when he was sent flying into the ground, creating a crater. The students stood petrified, watching the as the battle waged on.

Blow after blow, Skulker and Danny were growing tired, but neither stopped. Danny punched Skulker into the ground, grabbed the Fenton Thermos off of his belt and sucking up the offending ghost.

Once the thermos was capped, Danny promptly fell to the ground, face buried in the grass as faint yells of his name in his ears before he blacked out.

Sam and Tucker ran over to Danny's limp form. They had watched from the sidelines, watching as Danny slowly ran out of energy. They watched him fall to the ground. Sam dropped down onto her kneed by Danny's side, and placed her hands on his back, shaking his slightly from side to side, repeating his name over and over in an attempt the get him to wake up.

Suddenly, the two blueish white rings appeared around his form, changing him back from Phantom to Fenton. Sam heard gasps around her and looked up. The students were still by the school, watching as she and Tucker were trying to wake up the ghost boy. She looked around and saw news cameras, apparently there to capture the ghost attack. Sam's eyes grew wide as she looked at the news cameras. She's hand shot out and latched onto Tucker's upper arm, emitting a squeak of pain from him. He looked up from his fallen friend and looked at the shocked Sam, only to follow her gaze to the cameras.

Everything, it had seemed, for the past few minutes, was in pause. No one moved or said a word. Suddenly, like someone had hit the play button, all hell broke lose. The camera crew rushed over to get a better look at the 'ghost boy' who appeared to be human also. The students rushed forward as well, gathering around the fallen Fenton, everyone recognizing him.

Sam and Tucker shared a panicked look and put more effort into waking Danny up. Sam shook him harder, not attempting to roll him over and expose his face to the cameras. Sam smiled as she got a groan out of him. Everyone instantly backed up from the boy, scared looks plastered onto their faces.

Danny pushed himself up onto his knees, holding his head. He shook his head slightly to clear it and looked around. He noted all of the scared looks being directed towards him. His eyes grew wide, remembering the fight with Skulker and blacking out. He looked down at himself and noticed that he was back in his human form. His eyes grew even wider. His wounds were still bleeding slightly a florescent green.

He looked towards Sam asking her a silent question. She answered by bowing her head. He turned towards Tucker, who gave him the same response and then looked behind Danny. Danny turned to see what he was looking at to see the news cameras.

He instantly grabbed onto Sam and Tucker, phasing them into the ground and out of the site of the cameras. He didn't even bother to go ghost. They reappeared in the park, far away from the school.

Danny was panting heavily from the exertion. "Dude, this isn't good," Tucker said, breaking the silence.

"No kidding Tucker," Sam said angrily. She glared as said boy, but turned away from him and turning towards Danny. Her expression instantly softened. "We need to get those cuts looked at Danny."

He nodded, his breathing slowed down as he regained himself. "We should probably go to my house," he said, his voice no more than a whisper. "Besides, it's probably past time to tell my parents." Sam's heart swelled with pride. She was proud of Danny that he was going to tell his parents.

He grabbed back onto them, going ghost in the process, and flying them invisibly to his house. He stopped outside his house, taking deep breathes, preparing himself for what he was about to face. He felt two hands on his back and looked between Sam and Tucker, both of them reassuring him that they'd be there for him.

He smiled at them, getting strength from them, and walking up the steps to his house. He pushed open the front door to see both his parents, sitting on the couch, watching the news. Their attention turned towards the door as it opened. Maddie instantly jumped up and ran to her son, giving him a hug.

"Oh Danny, you're all right!" she cried, hugging him to her. She finally released him to look at him. "You're hurt!"

"You're not mad?" he asked. "That I've been lying to you these past four years?" He looked up at her.

"Of course not sweetheart!" she said, hugging him again, but not as bone crushing. "I feel so terrible trying to capture you and dissecting you!"

"That's right son!" Jack said, joining the conversation. "You're a ghost hunter! We couldn't be more proud!"

Danny smiled at his dad's reaction, typical Jack Fenton. He looked back at Sam and Tucker who were smiling at him. He smiled back and back out of his mother's hold. "I need to get these cuts looked at," he said, motioning to the wounds from the brush with the rest of his death.

"Alright, but we're going to have to talk about some things afterwards, alright?" Maddie asked her son. He nodded in response.

"I'll take care of him Mrs. Fenton, I've had a lot of practice dealing with him hurting himself," Sam said. Maddie smiled at her.

"Though, I can't, I've gotta get home," Tucker said, looking at his watch. "And my parents will also probably want an explanation." He waved them goodbye before darting out of the house and down the street.

"All right, come on Danny," Sam said, grabbing his hand and dragging him up to his bathroom. She set him on the toilet and told him to strip down to his boxers.

"What!" he asked, blushing profusely.

"Come on Danny, I can't get to the one on your leg if you're still in your pants, and besides it's too much different than seeing you in your swimsuit!" Sam said impatiently.

"Alright, alright!" he said, quickly striping down to his boxers, the blush never leaving his face and growing a couple shades darker. Sam chuckled at him, pushing down the urge she had to kiss him senseless right then.

As she cleaned the cut on his shoulder, staring at it intently, Danny spoke up. "What am I going to do about school tomorrow? Everyone knows my secret!" he sighed dejectedly.

"We'll tackle that when it comes the time, but just concentrate on getting better right now," Sam told him.

"But what are they going to think! I'm a freak Sam! A freak!"

"Danny!" Sam said angrily, staring into his eyes. "Stop it. You're no different now than you were then! Of course people are going to treat you differently, but that's just because people stupidly fear things that they don't understand. So stop beating yourself up about something that you couldn't control."

Danny sighed and smiled a bit, turning away from her intense gaze. "Thanks Sam."

"What are friends for? Tuck and I won't abandon you just because your secret is out." Sam graced him with a rare smile. He turned back towards her, locking eyes with her. All time seemed to stop again. They drifted off into their own world, each drawing closer to the other until their lips locked. It was a short kiss, but it spoke volumes. They broke apart and stared at each other again, smiling. "Not a fake-out make-out I'm hoping," Sam said.

"No way in hell," Danny replied. He kissed her again and broke away so that she could tend to the rest of his wounds.

Once properly bandaged, they both headed downstairs to where his parents were sitting in the kitchen. They sat opposite of them, Danny taking a deep breath to steady him.

"Alright, Danny, I got a call from Mr. Lancer earlier today to say that you were covered in scars. Are you?" Maddie asked, dreading the answer. Her son nodded, moving the sleeve of his shirt up to reveal the scars along his forearm.

"My whole body's like this," he said.

"How did this happen?" Jack asked, interested in how his son was the ghost boy, acting serious and out of character. Danny told them about how the lab accident hadn't just electrocuted him, about how it had half killed him, making him half ghost, half human, or a halfa to the ghost world. He answered his mom's and dad's questions, Sam putting some information in here and there, adding details that he was fuzzy on.

They talked until Sam said she had to go home. She bid farewell and walked back to her house. Danny and his parents talked further into the evening, talking about his adventures and battles, and his enemies, leaving out the fact that Vlad was a half ghost too, until Danny started yawning.

His parents shuffled him off to bed, where he stripped down to his boxers and fell onto his bed, falling asleep right away.

The next morning sunshine shone in his face, waking him from his peaceful sleep. His alarm clock next to him shrieked into life, he hit the power button and rose from his bed, stretching. He proceeded to his bathroom where he quickly took a shower and hung a towel from around his waist.

He walked back to his bedroom to see Sam in his room and Tucker climbing into his window. "AH!" he yelled, his towel almost dropping, but he grabbed it at the last second and secured it more tightly around his waist. "What are you two doing here?" he asked them, water dripping down his nose from his hair, his face flushed from only being in a towel.

Sam finally noticed him and was about to answer when she noticed his attire, blushed, and turned quickly around. Tucker had finished pulling himself into the room by then and said, "You've got about a million reporters in front of your house right now, and I'm so glad that your window points to the backyard, otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to get in."

"Oh God," Danny moaned, hands covering his face. "What are we gunna do?"

"Well, we could fly invisible to school and let your parents deal with the reporters with the Fenton AntiCreep Stick," Sam said, not turning around as she said it.

Tucker looked at her funnily and started to laugh. "I think we should let you get dressed before Sam here has a nose bleed. Come on Sam," he said, pulling her out of Danny's room.

Danny was left in there, scratching his head. He quickly dressed and exited his room, finding Sam and Tucker downstairs with his parents, telling them their plan of action. They seemed rather pleased to use the Fenton AntiCreep Sticks to get rid of some pesky reporters.

"Here," Sam said, extending her hand, and handing him a backpack. "You left it at school yesterday."

He smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek murmuring, "Thanks," before he left.

"Did I miss something?" Tucker asked looking between the two, noting that neither blushed at the kiss.

"Well, you had to leave yesterday, so yeah," Danny said, smiling as he slipped his hand into Sam's and intertwined their fingers.

"HA!" Tucker yelled suddenly and turned towards Danny's dad. "You owe me twenty bucks!"

"Aw…" Jack said, forking over the money.

"You bet on us!" Sam asked incredulously.

"Yep," Tuck said, not denying the fact, "on whether you'd be together before the end of high school. In fact…I've got a lot more bets to collect on!" Danny and Sam sighed.

"How did your parents take the news?" Danny asked.

"Well, my parents kept on ranting about my safety and wanted to get a new restraining order, but when I mentioned that you wouldn't like it very much and might do something drastic, then they gave up on the idea," Sam said sighing.

"Gee, thanks, I really appreciate you using me as a threat," Danny said dully. Sam just smiled in answer.

"My parents have known you since we were little Danny, they know you're a good kid," Tucker added. Danny smiled and grabbed onto Tucker, his hand still holding Sam's, going ghost and phased them through the roof. He turned them invisible, and flew them over the sea of reporters and headed to school.

Jack and Maddie watched their son transform and take his friends to school. "That's going to take some getting used to," Maddie sighed.

"Yeah, but now we can help Danny fight all those ghosts!" he said excitedly. "Any maybe test a few inventions!" Maddie gave him a pointed glare. "Or not…"

Danny flew them to the side of the school and changed back, making them all visible. They walked around to the front and Danny took a deep breath before climbing the stairs and pushing the doors open.

The trio walked into school, Danny in the middle with Sam on his right, holding hands with their fingers intertwined, and Tucker flanking his left. The whole hall quieted down as he entered, whispers sent throughout the hall alerting others of his presence. As they walked forward, the students parted, making a path down the middle of the hall.

Danny went to his locker, grabbed his needed books before closing it. "Hey Fentoad!" a yell came down the hall. Danny turned to see Dash walking towards him. "You think you're so tough just because you're a ghost!" he accused.

"No, I don't, and I'm not full ghost. I'm part human, part ghost," Danny corrected.

"Yeah, well, that makes you even more of a freak, Freak!"

Dash had expected many reactions out of Danny, but not this one. Danny started to laugh. When he regained himself, he said to Dash, "Thanks for the familiarity."

Dash just looked at him with a confused expression as he walked away to his first class. "You see?" Sam said. "I told you that you're still the same."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Danny said, smiling and placing a feather light kiss onto Sam's lips. Their bliss was broken by a smacking sound. They both turned towards Tucker who had his hand held to his forehead.

"I can't believe that I forgot! And I just learned it this morning! I gotta go collect my bets!" Tucker said, dashing down the hall. Danny and Sam watched him leave, laughing at his retreating form.

"I'd say he needs to treat us to something because of that," Sam said, laughter in her voice and eyes.

"Definitely," Danny agreed. He was in heaven right now. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad.

But then again, never test Mr. Murphy. Because right after he thought that thought, a perky voice called down the hall with a slight Hispanic accent, "Oh Danny!" Paullina sauntered her way over to Danny, completely ignoring Sam, who just happened to be holding onto Danny's hand and was right behind him.

"Paullina," Danny replied dryly. This girl who'd constantly ignored him all throughout high school now wanted his attention because he was the ghost boy.

"Do you wanna do something with me tonight?" she asked, slinking up to him, making him take a step back.

"No," he said flatly, not trying to hide his annoyance.

"But, why not? You've pined over me all through high school!" she whined, clearly not used to being rejected.

"Actually, I got over you in sophomore year, but that's beside the point. Sam's my girlfriend now," he said a-matter-of-factly.

Sam gaped at him, flushing as he called her his girlfriend. She looked towards Paullina, seeing her horror stricken face. An evil smirk graced her lips as she stood on her tip toes and kissed Danny on the cheek before resting her head on his shoulder. "I thought it'd be obvious," Sam said, wrapping her free arm around his waist and resting it on his stomach.

Danny mentally laughed at Paullina's face. He placed his hand over Sam's and stroked the back of it lightly with his fingers. He turned away from Paullina and faced Sam, kissing her lightly on the lips before they both entered Mr. Lancer's English class.

"Miss Manson, Mr. Fenton, I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that right in front of my class and waited until you're out of school to involve yourself in such activities," Mr. Lancer said from behind his desk.

Sam and Danny sat in their usual seats, hands still intertwined. "That was some good clean up you did out there _boyfriend_," Sam said, putting emphasis on the last word. Danny smiled sheepishly at her and squeezed her hand lightly. She smiled back at him.

_Ok, don't curse me Mr. Murphy, but today's going to be a good day, except for those reporters, but oh well, we'll tackle them when the time comes,_ he thought to himself. _Yep, it's definitely going to be a good day._

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**Murphy's Law (AKA Mr. Murphy): Anything bad that can happen in any given situation will happen in said situation.**

**I hope you liked it! It came out a LOT longer than I originally thought! And this is a whole lot longer than an essay that I had to write for my English class. It's so sad… Please read and review!**


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